


Love Is Stored In The Text

by Ignisentis



Series: Beautiful, Quivering, Chivalrous Shambles [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Football (soccer) references, Gen, I love their little family, background Joe/Nicky, soft with a bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27276340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignisentis/pseuds/Ignisentis
Summary: Booker frowns when his phone vibrates once just a few hours after everyone left him on the riverbank. He’s still there, sitting and staring out at the water but not really seeing anything.100 years. It’s…It’s something he doesn’t want to think about, not now, not when his throat burns and tightens whenever he starts to think about it, not when he feels the tears in his eyes threatening to spill over.A text is a welcome distraction. He’s just not sure who sent it. Everyone he knows is angry at him.
Series: Beautiful, Quivering, Chivalrous Shambles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991572
Comments: 32
Kudos: 270





	Love Is Stored In The Text

**Author's Note:**

> There are some football (soccer) references in here that I’ll explain in the end notes. You don’t really need to know what they mean to get the gist of the conversation.

Booker frowns when his phone vibrates once just a few hours after everyone left him on the riverbank. He’s still there, sitting and staring out at the water but not really seeing anything. 

100 years. It’s…

It’s something he doesn’t want to think about, not now, not when his throat burns and tightens whenever he starts to think about it, not when he feels the tears in his eyes threatening to spill over. 

A text is a welcome distraction. He’s just not sure who sent it. Everyone he knows is angry at him. _ And whose fault is that?  _ His brain not very helpfully supplies. 

He sighs at himself and pulls his phone out of his pocket to see who texted him, frowning in surprise when he sees it’s from Nile. He didn’t know she even had his number. 

**NILE:** We made it to the safe house. You should get off that riverbank and go eat some food, find someplace to stay. 

Chuckling softly at how easily she’s got the make of him even though they just met, he starts tapping out a reply. 

**ME:** Yes, ma’am. Take care of them for me. 

He sends it before he can regret the sentiment. 

**NILE:** You know I will. 

He smiles as he slides his phone back into his pocket. Nile was right. He does need to go. Maybe five more minutes first. 

~~~

Andy texts him a week later. He’s made his way to Paris. He hasn’t lived in France for more than three weeks at a time since...well. Since. He figures it’s as good a place as any to be lonely. 

There’s a picture in Andy’s text when he finally checks it: Andy’s abdomen, in the middle of a bandage change, it looks like. 

**ANDY:** Healing well. No infection. 👍👍

He pinches in on the photo, and she’s right. The wound is healing well, cleanly. He swallows hard when he thinks about how she’ll carry the scar with her to the end of her days. He forces himself to keep looking, though. He owes her that much. 

He has to put his phone down and dig the heels of his hands into his eyes when he sees the abrasion marks the medical tape has left around the edges of the bandage site. That would have healed before it even got abrased before. 

Before. 

~~~

It takes Joe four months to text, which shocks him. He didn’t think he’d hear from Joe for years. He sighs and braces himself before he reads the message.

**JOE:** FOOTBALL’S ON, AND I TURNED TO YOU TO BITCH ABOUT SP*RS, BUT YOU AREN’T HERE, YOU FUCKER

He gets a text from Nicky a minute later. It’s a selfie of Nicky glaring into the camera, with Joe in the background staring forlornly at his phone. 

His stomach clenches, and he has a moment where he thinks his wine lunch may make a second appearance before it settles. 

God. God. 

He looks down at his phone when it buzzes again. 

**JOE:** Seriously, though, Harry Kane is the worst. 

**ME:** COYG

**JOE:** Damn straight. 

Nicky sends him another message a minute later, and it’s a short video of Nicky glaring even harder before making the “I’m keeping my eyes on you” motion by pointing to his own eyes before pointing into the camera at Booker. 

He snorts and watches the video again. And again. 

It’s not until the fifth time he watches it that he notices Joe’s smiling at his phone in the background. 

He feels a bubble of hope start rising through his chest, unbidden. In his head, it’s shaped like a text. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sp*rs = Tottenham Hotspur, arch rival of my favorite team, Arsenal. Both teams play in the English Premier League. 
> 
> COYG = Come On You Gunners, a cheer to encourage Arsenal, whose nickname is the Gunners. 
> 
> Harry Kane = a striker for Sp*rs so automatically he sucks just because he plays for them. That’s how it works in sports, folks, I don’t make the rules. 🤣


End file.
